[1] The temperature distribution and circulation patterns in the Yellow Sea (YS) are examined by using a wave-tide-circulation coupled numerical model. This model sufficiently reproduces the variation of the warm tongue structure of the Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) from the double branches flowing along the YS Trough and the western 60 m isobath in January to the single stream along the western temperature front in March. This is observed in both the long-term monthly climatology and the satellite-based sea surface temperature images in recent years. Examining the local heat balance in the numerical model during the entire cooling period, it is found that the YSWC has a very important influence on the YS warm tongue structure. Compared with the surface cooling, the influence of the advection is small in the coastal shallow area but large in the deep warm tongue area (up to 50% of the magnitude of heat flux). Although bathymetry is the essential factor which causes the temperature front, the YSWC is the key factor which positions, shapes, and maintains the warm tongue structure. This helps to affirm the existence of the YSWC, at least as a monthly mean flow. However, more high-resolution current observations in deeper layers west of Cheju Island and the western fork of the YS Trough are needed to confirm the existence of the YSWC and its characteristic timescale in the real YS.
Data were acquired continuously during the 19‐day DELILAH nearshore experiment with a specific objective of examining variability of the longshore current at tidal frequencies. It is hypothesized that breaking wave heights inside the surf zone are strong functions of the depth which are modulated by the tidal variations, and since radiation stress is a function of the wave height, longshore currents are forced at the tidal frequency inside the surf zone. The measured longshore current variations at tidal frequency are the same order of magnitude as the mean longshore current variations for moderate wave height conditions, indicating that the tide is a dominant mechanism associated with longshore current variability. Simulations of the magnitude and phase of the longshore current variability with tide elevation using the model by Thornton and Guza (1986) are used to explain observations. The measured tidal elevation and longshore current are in phase in the inner surf zone and out of phase in the outer surf zone as predicted by the model, verifying the hypothesis.
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